The Finance Ministry on Thursday extended the due date for filing GST returns for the financial year 2017-18 (FY18) and financial year 2018-19 (FY19).

According to a Finance Ministry statement, the due dates for filing Form GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and Form GSTR-9C (Reconciliation Statement) for the financial year 2017-18 will be December 31, 2019, as against November 30, 2019. Similarly, for FY 19, it will be March 31, 2020, as against December 31, 2019. The Government has also decided to simplify these forms by making various fields in them optional.

Every GST assessee has to file an annual return in GSTR 9. Among these assessees, every registered taxable person whose turnover during a financial year exceeds ₹2 crore, will also be required to get his accounts audited by a chartered accountant or a cost accountant and then submit a reconciliation statement in GSTR 9C along with GSTR 9. Assessees under the composition scheme (businesses with turnover up to ₹1.5 crore) will be required to file the GSTR 9A form. The last date for filing these returns for the financial year 2017-18 were extended to November 30 from August 31.

Simplification of Returns

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has notified the amendments regarding the simplification of GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and GSTR-9C (Reconciliation Statement), which inter-alia allows taxpayers not to provide a split of input tax credit availed on inputs, input services and capital goods and not to provide HSN level information of outputs or inputs, etc, for FY18 and FY19.

CBIC expects that with these changes and the extension of deadlines, all GST taxpayers would be able to file their annual returns along with their reconciliation statements for the financial years FY18 and FY19 in time. The Government has acted in a very responsive manner to the representations on challenges faced by taxpayers in filing GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C.

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